By Grant Pick
Yet on the eve of his departure, a measure of Maloof’s true influence on his city is the blowout planned for him at the Peoria Civic Center. When Peoria elected him 12 years ago it was reeling from the collapse of Caterpillar Inc., the tractor maker that was–and is–the city’s largest employer. Maloof’s cheerleading helped revive the local economy.
Then Caterpillar ran into problems. “Up until the early 80s Caterpillar virtually dictated the life of Peoria, and the company was fat and happy,” recalls Tucker Kennedy, marketing vice president of the Economic Development Council for the Peoria Area. “We thought we were recession-proof. Then the national economy went in the tank, and Caterpillar began suffering from foreign competition, particularly from Japan. They couldn’t move their inventory. Suddenly Cat had pneumonia, the national economy had pneumonia, and Peoria went into a coma.”
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One year a magazine rated Peoria as a fairly livable city, ahead of New York at any rate, and Maloof capitalized by calling up then mayor Ed Koch–a huckstering peer–and offering condolences. “Oh, we milked the hell out of that one,” says Maloof, still relishing the stunt. “We had NBC and ABC in my office, and I’m saying hello to Koch on the phone. It’s called shtick.”
Maloof prides himself on the women and minorities he’s appointed to Peoria’s 31 city commissions. He makes no apologies about browbeating drugstores to stow Playboy and other skin magazines under the counter–to keep them from soiling “some innocent child,” he explains. Or about voting as a committed right-to-lifer against any city appropriation that would benefit Planned Parenthood. A state riverboat casino license that Peoria was in line for crossed the river to East Peoria instead, in large part because Maloof didn’t want his city involved with gaming. “Gambling’s a detriment to families,” he says. “It heightens the divorce rate. You get people stealing. It’s a poison.” Peoria receives half the local tax revenues thrown off by the East Peoria casino, but Maloof considers his city’s $3.5 million a year “bad money.”
The women’s charges surfaced as Maloof was standing for election a third time, and Peoria stood by him. Women approached him on the street and said, “You can hug me anytime.” T-shirts and buttons announced, “I was hugged by the mayor.” In the end Maloof was reelected handily, while Brown and the other women filed suits in federal court.
